Photographic method and product resulting therefrom



June 8,1937. J, THOM O 2,083,249

PHOTOGRAPHIC METHOD AND PRODUCT RESULTING THEREFROM Filed Dec. 20, 1935 INVENTOR m W my:

Patented .June 8, 1937 UNITED STATES PHOTOGBAPHIG METHOD AND PRODUCT BESULTIN G THEREFROM Joseph B. Thomson, Brooklyn, N. Y. Application December 20, 1935, Serial No. 55,32!

Claims.

This invention relates to photography and more specifically to a method for producing a photograph and the product resulting therefrom.

- In general it is an object of the invention to provide a method and product of the character described which will efiiciently perform the purposes for which they are intended, which method is simple and economical and which may be expeditiously and conveniently followed, and which product may be readily and sturdily usable.

Another object of the invention is to provide a photograph made entirely of lmetal, i. e., a photograph of which at least the face is of metal.

Another object is to provide a colored, metallic photograph; to provide a metallic photograph having strongly contrasting light and dark areas; and to provide a metallic photograph having certain areas raised with respect to certain other areas.

Other objects of the invention will inpart be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the article possessing the features, properties and the relation of elements, which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure, and the scope oi the application of which will be indicated inthe claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a product in one of the initial stages of manufacture by a method which exemplifies one form of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a representative cross section of a 40 small part of the product shown in Fig. 1;

Figs. 3 and 4 are views similar to, and of stages subsequent to the stage shown in, Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a view, similar to Fig. 2, of the final product.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 2 of a product undergoing a method which is a modification of the method to which the product shown in Figs. L5 is subjected;

Fig. 'I is a view similar to, and of a stage sub- 50 sequent to the stage shown in, Fig. 6; and

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 6, of the final product derived from the intermediate product shown in Fig. 6.

In general the present method is concerned 55 with the building up photographically of a picture in which the lights and shades are obtained by the use of different metals or of metal in difierent physical or chemical condition. The darker metal may be applied or rendered dark before the light-colored metal is applied or caused to appear light-colored, and vice versa.

In the drawing, It represents a conducting sheet, preferably of relatively non-rusting material such as copper, brass, aluminum, etc. layer ll of light-sensitive material, such as lightsensitive enamel, is applied to one face of the copper sheet l0 and then exposed to light-behind a negative which has previously been prepared with the aid of a fine mesh screen or a half-tone negative. The exposed layer II is developed and washed so that those portions, which were hidden by the negative from the light, are dissolved away. The enamel positive which remains may be heated to toughenit. The surface of the positive is'thus covered by an assemblage of hard enamel dots l2 corresponding to the screen of the negative. They form the shadows of the picture and in some portions, of course, form almost a continuous surface. They are shown in black in Fig. 1, the white portions l3 being the copper which shows where the unexposed enamel has been dissolved away.

The metal exposed between the hardened enamel areas is next between the hardened enamel areas will appear to be of a predetermined color. For present purposes, black and white are considered colors. In obtaining this color the'plate may be etched as at I4, among other reasons the better to electroplate thereon, with a material suitable for etching layer It, The plate at this stage has the form shown exaggeiatedly in Fig. 2. It is then electroplated in such a fashion and with such a metal as to appear, for example, white. Tin may be used for this and is shown at in Fig. 3. It deposits only on the copper exposed at the areas ll.

The hardened enamel may next be removed with a removing agent. A hot hydroxide, KOH. may be used for this. (See Fig. 4.)

The portions l6 of the surface of metal III which were beneath the hardened enamel may be treated so as to be of a different color from the color of the areas which were not beneath the hardened enamel. This may be accomplished by covering the white areas IS with a nonoonductor (see stippling in Fig. 4) and then depositing, as by electrodeposition, a metal of such a nature and in such a fashion as to leave a black deposit. Nickel may be used for this purpose. The

treated so that the surface nickel l1, Fig. 5, is thus Substituted for the hardened enamel ll. Asphaltum or dragon's blood is a suitable non-conductor and is adapted to be ammonia will darken brass.

If desired, the dark metal such pearance of a predetermined texture andcolor. Tin gives a white color. The hardened enamel II, which forms in part the photographic posiand the lights by white metal.

When tin and nickel are used, there is prepared a photograph the lights and shadows of which are formed of highly contrasting, differently colored metals.

A paper positive print may be made from the originalnegative. If the contours of the photograph are sharp, either the light or dark objects of the invention herein dethe scope of the invention, which as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is'

1. A metallic, mprising a. supportmg plate of normally bright ment of the lower plurality of areas the higher plurality of areas.

3. A metallic, photographic pearing white.

4. Ametallic, photographic picture comprising relatively dark 5. A process of forming a metallic, photor graphic picture comprising coating a sheet 01' metal with a light-sensitive resist, exposing said coated sheet behind a half-tone negative, developing the exposed resist, removing the unexposed resist, etching the resist-freed surfaces to produce -to give a light-reflecting, substantially whitesurface in the etched depresthe metal sheet exposed by such removal without substantially nfecting the electro-deposited white JOSEPH B. THOMSON.

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